My 2020 q3 purchased december 21, 2019 malfunctioned in the middle of an intersection january 22, 2020. it had 1400 miles on it. the steering wheel locked and i had no engine. i could not turn the steering wheel and it shut off the brake lights, which left me in a seriously unsafe situation. this was the third time it happened. the other two instances happened in a parking lot. i thought i had done something wrong with the start/stop. my dealership has dismissed my safety concerns and have offered no resolution to the problem, other than disengage the start/stop every time i get in the vehicle. there was no guarantee of when this would be fixed and was told it could be months to get the parts. there was also no guarantee that this wouldn't happen with the start/stop already disengaged. i am driving a vehicle that could potentially shut down without warning leaving my life and the lives of others at risk.
I bought my audi q3 on december 21 and on december 22 i started noticing issues with the steering, specifically related to the auto stop/start function. now, as detailed below, i did not have a positive experience with my purchase of the vehicle, so when i started to notice the slow belabored turning, i thought that i was making more out of it because i had such a negative experience at the dealership. and, i wish that's what it was. as i continued to drive the vehicle more, the problem with the steering wheel locking up not only became more frequent, but also more aggressive, where it went from a short split-second delay to a delays that lasted many seconds. this is highly dangerous and terrifying. the last time it happened was in the middle of an intersection where i was trying to turn left, and the vehicle was moving forward but the steering wheel wasn't engaging - this occurred as traffic was coming towards me, one of which had to swerve to miss slamming into me in the intersection. obviously, my next step was to bring the car into the dealership to fix the clear defect. so you can imagine my surprise, horror, and dismay, when days later i received a call from the service department telling me that not only did audi know about the defect, but that to them it wasn't a defect at all but an adequately performing 'slight delay.' of all the responses that i could have imagined, that was the one that never crossed my mind because that would me that audi was willfully ignoring the safety of their customers. the service representative did his best to show me work arounds for the problem, but as i said to him, steering your car while driving is not something that should have to be 'worked around.' there shouldn't need to be a work around where safety is concerned. the unsafe delay has continued to occur.
When the auto start-stop function activates (turning the engine off), the steering wheel locks. the car can continue to roll when you let your foot off the brake to start moving again, but the steering wheel remains locked not allowing you to steer the car when necessary. i almost got hit because of this and it is very scary not to be able to steer out of the way when necessary!!! this is horrible function of the car which can cause a lot of accidents!!
The lane-departure assist does not always recognize the tar lines on the road as non-lines. the lane departure assist almost pulled me into a guard rail on the highway when exiting!!! this has happened on several occasions and is terrifying! it takes quite a bit of strength to obtain control back from the car!! it is also very hard to steer when the lane assist takes over and does not allow you to veer out of the way when someone swerved into your lane! again, it takes quite a bit of strength to wrestle back control from the car! please help! these assist features are a hazard to normal driving! if i had known about these flaws, i would had never leased the car. i am not stuck in a dangerous car for 3 years! help others! please!!